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The Naked Prey

Synopsis

Stripped, weaponless, alone and only ten desperate seconds ahead of the killers!

A group of men are on safari. One of the party refuses to give a gift to a tribe they encounter. The tribe is offended, seizes the party, and one-by-one, kills all but one of the safari members in various creative and horrifying ways. The last surviving member is given "The Lion's Chance" by the tribal leader to be hunted down by a party of tribal warriors.

Ignoring the questionable depictions of race and how far fetched it is for much of its run time, The Naked Prey is a relentless and kinetic chase movie. The thing that really strikes you is the fact it is practically wordless. Barring a handful of lines near the start no English is uttered throughout the entire film, instead it relies on the relentless African drum beats and the heightened sounds of people desperate for breath or screaming in pain as a spear penetrates their abdomen.

After the white hunters offend the native tribe all bar one of the party are killed in surprisingly horrific ways. The one survivor is then sent out into the wild, naked and defenseless, as the…

This is going to sound goofy, but The Naked Prey reminded me of the Star Trek episode in which Kirk fights Gorn (the lizard man). Remember that one? Like that episode of Star Trek, The Naked Prey relies on action and environment to tell the story, not dialogue.

The Naked Prey is about a man (Cornel Wilde) who is set loose naked and without weapons in the wild of Africa to be hunted by warriors whose tribe have been offended by the man's safari group. The man must outsmart the warriors to survive. In addition to escaping the warriors, the man must also escape the dangers of the African wilderness. There are snakes and wild animals to avoid, and dangerous…

This film was directed by and stars Cornel Wild as an unnamed jungle explorer in Africa who is captured by slighted natives and forced to try to run from them as they chase him for sport. It’s a setup that is not dissimilar from Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, and like that later film much of this film consists of an extended foot chase through harsh terrain. It’s a pretty cool action film for its time and it also manages to avoid a lot of the “dark continent” overtones of its premise by giving the pursuing tribesmen a lot of humanity and never ignoring their feelings about the situation at hand. Lots of really cool wild-life footage as well. I think the film might have benefited from a stronger opening that gives you a better idea of who this guy is who’s being chased, but otherwise it’s pretty solid.

The cycle of savagery is broken twice: when the Man rescues a child by acting as a decoy to the slavers who have decimated her village; and when the Man and the lead tribesman briefly salute each other at the end of the chase. They are both examples of humanity transcending its instinct toward self and the natural imperative to live by tooth and claw. They are also extremely poignant moments because they are rare within the endless exploitation of the strong over the weak which mostly ends in death and the ripping apart of flesh. It's 19th Africa of the Savannah, where the gun is the most advanced technology and the Great White Hunter lords over the native tribesman.…

the absence of dialogue for most of the film allowed one to study the instincts and intentions of the characters throughout the chase, more fully appreciating the non-verbal characterizations. the lack of subtitles forced the audience to experience a degree of confusion and disorientation that complemented the main character's own situation. I thought it was awesome when the main character realized that he was not the apex predator when the lion took a carcass away and he didn't do anything about it. the blasé, modern Western man humbled into being a survivalist primitive, yet doesn't entirely abandon his humanity as was shown through the comforting interactions between the main character and the little girl. I liked that the main character, even with all his resourcefulness, did not ultimately triumph without the timely aid of his men. the scenes in the African villages felt spontaneous as if there was minimal staging involved which made those situations all the more gripping.

One of my favorite movies, now in widescreen with magnificent Criterion remastering. I'm happy. Includes a nice illustrated reading of the original source material. Script by actor/director Cornel Wilde, and probably has less dialog than any sound film ever nominated for best screenplay. This movie deserves to be better known.

Cornel Wilde produced, directed and starred in this pure and aggressively focused adventure story of an American survivalist who outruns and outfights an African tribe who want him dead after a tragic mistake made him a marked man. Some people may find the fact that one white man becomes a more formidable opponent against a whole tribe silly (maybe a bit racist too) but this is an impressively made film that's like one great, long chase sequence.

Proto-"Apocalypto," The Naked Prey starts with a safari in Africa during colonial times that goes wrong. When the self-centered finanicer of the expedition refuses to pay tribute to a local tribe's chieftain, the group is attacked, tortured, and killed except for the guide. He escapes, and is pursued across the plains by a group of warriors hell-bent on killing him.

There's a lot to like about The Naked Prey. After the opening act, there's almost no dialogue but rather the movie becomes a wilderness survival / escape movie, very much in the vein of Apocalypto. Obviously shot on location, the African landscape is rugged and beautiful, although it is still shot rather plainly. The protagonist alternates between three consistent challenges:…